To the Academy and Beyond
by Maverick1997
Summary: At the academy before the war started, there were no Decepticons or Autobots. Classes were taken and a group of mechs and femmes sought to get into mischief any way possible. This is my take on how some of the Autobots and Decepticons chose their paths.
1. Chapter 1

Hey Everyone, I've decided that I'm going to rewrite everything I have so far on this story and add a lot more to it because I was having difficult moving forwards with the story. Lucky for you all, I've finished up to chapter four now so I can give you all regular updates for a couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy this story now and if you haven't already, please go read "Life of an Ancient" because it is linked to this story, pretty much ending where this one picks up. Please enjoy and let me know what you think of the story. :)

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Chapter 1

SparkSoul arrives in Iacon the orn before classes begin and opens up one of the smaller apartments that her family owns in the large city. There is a crisp smell to the place as she steps inside and flicks on the light. The place is a one level apartment about midway up a small housing complex. It's not dingy but not top of the line either, but certainly good for a student attending the academy. The place has been empty for vorns, since her last stint at the academy about thirty vorns ago.

The rest of her siblings have given up on going to academies, not really enjoying the experience and much preferring the rather violent lives they live by staying at home. SparkSoul on the other hand loves the way no one knows who she is, taking on a new frame and creating a new identity for herself.

The tall femme gets herself settled in the small place, cleaning some of the rooms before putting her few possessions out on the small shelves in her room. There's a desk in one corner, a berth in another and a door opposite the berth. The shelves are attached to the wall above the desk and run along the wall to stop just above the berth.

The walls are silver, just the standard colour of the metal that the place is built out of. Giving the room a once over SparkSoul is satisfied that all of her belongings are in place and goes about bringing up the designs for her new frame on the data pad on the desk. She's already subspaced the metal requirements for the frame so it shouldn't be too hard to get it working for her.

For a moment the femme concentrates on removing all of her outer armour and sliding it into her secondary subspace, leaving her standing in the middle of the room in just her underarmour. It's not a problem whatsoever and SparkSoul pulls out the newer metal from her primary subspace and shifts it into place until she looks the same as the sketch on the data pad. There are doorwings upon her back, blue and white in colour. Her entire frame is a mix of blue and white, rather plain but just about right for her time at the Iaconian Academy.

The armour settles into place before SparkSoul switches off the data pad. Her designation for her time at the academy is going to be Octane Racer, just a tad more interesting than the designation she had taken on last time.

There's still joors until SparkSoul has to teleport back to the gladiator rings to train the bot she had taken on just orns before so the femme decides to head out to one of the bars which is frequented by academy students. Leaving the house she darts down to the street and joins the flow of traffic weaving its way throughout the city.

It's not too congested for the moment, likely to be much worse the following day when lessons start up again. A lot of bots travel in from surrounding cities to attend the Iacon Academy, simply because of its reputation and number of courses it offers. About half the bots who apply are turned away each vorn and each new group is suitably large. Not too many bots drop out, less than ten per cent which certainly says something for the academy.

Octane Racer, for that's who she is now, enjoys the flow of cool air over her fame as she speeds towards the bar that she's heading for. The congestion gets worse the closer to the academy the femme gets, almost bumper to bumper at one point.

Once she's close enough to walk there the femme transforms and begins to trudge along. There are barely any bots lining the paths, all too busy trying to shove their way through the congested streets. In contrast the sky is almost completely clear of traffic, very few shuttles moving back and forth and no seekers anywhere to be found.

Most of the seekers attending the academy have either already arrived or will come in the early joors on the orn that classes start. While there is definitely an echelon style system in the city of Vos as a whole it's a rather wealthy city, much wealthier than Iacon, Praxus, Tyger Pax and Kaon.

The seekers who inhabit Vos tend to stick to themselves, barely ever leaving their city. The place is very self-sufficient; producing its own energon as well has having numerous academies and schools. Very few bots are allowed into Vos, the borders around the flying city patrolled strictly.

With such a wealthy city it's not all that surprising that not many of the flyers ever leave to travel elsewhere. It's odd to see Seekers in any other place unless they are putting on one of their rare flying shows or the politicians are attending the planetary meetings which occur each vorn.

As such Octane Racer is surprised to see a seeker sitting alone at the bar when she arrives. The place is dark and never checks the age of the patrons who enter. Pretty much anyone with enough credits can get a cube of high grade if they want one. There isn't a wide selection but more than enough to entertain the academy students who frequent it throughout the vorn.

The blue and white femme perches herself on the chair next to the seeker, careful to keep her doorwings out of the mech's way, preferring not to deal with the whole issue of wings getting scraped. The bartender comes over and Octane orders some dark energon. When it comes it's rather sludgy but delivers the same buzz that it would if it was of higher quality.

Octane Racer looks over at the mech next to her and gets a bit of a feel for what he's doing here. He's definitely not old enough to be a repeat customer at the Academy so it's likely to be his first time attending. The mech's frame is an expensive style and in his alternate form he would be very fast and most likely very agile. There are splashes of white, blue and red on the mech's frame in a very flattering style. It's obvious he's from a fair bit of money back in Vos, if his frame and the quality of the paint on him is anything to go by.

Comfortable with her appraisal of the mech the blue and white femme turns towards him on her stool before speaking up.

"Are you here to attend classes at the academy?" Octane Racer asks, making sure the curiosity is obvious in her tone.

"What's it to you?" the mech spits out.

"Just asking, I'm starting at the academy tomorrow and was hoping to find some people who are also starting then."

The mech eyes Octane Racer warily for a moment or two before replying.

"Yeah, I'm starting tomorrow at the academy, my first time. Designation's Starscream."

"That's cool, my designation is Octane Racer."

Starscream tilts his head slightly, "You're not from Iacon."

It's a statement not a question, Octane's slight accent giving her away. The Iaconian's speak in a very particular drawl, one that is unmistakable.

"No, I'm from Praxus. I'm only here to attend the Academy, and then I'll be heading home."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one in a strange city, I was worried most of the bots starting out would be Iaconians, you know, used to this place and all that. Plus, as soon as you have any sort of wings on your back here you're a bit of a curiosity."

"I know what you mean; the doorwings always get me a few odd looks here and there. A lot of bots also just don't know wing etiquette, always wanting to touch and things. Ugh," Octane Racer says, smiling.

Starscream smiles back, the frown which had been on his faceplates now nowhere to be found.

The bar begins to get a little more crowded, to the point where there are bots getting awfully close to Octane Racer's doorwings. In her usual frame it's no problem, everybody avoids getting close to her. Here though everyone is awfully close and her doorwings are a little more sensitive due to how new this frame is.

Starscream seems to be getting uncomfortable where he is as well so Octane Racer leans over and invites him to come back to her place. He nods gratefully as they leave the club together, trying to avoid getting jostled by the enthusiastic crowd.

They make it outside without getting bounced around too much and cycle air deeply in an effort to get the smell of coolant and high grade energon out of their systems. Smiling at one another Octane Racer leads them towards her place, preferring to stay in bipedal form. Even if she transformed Starscream wouldn't be able to join her on the road, his only two forms being his bipedal and aircraft form- the usual for seekers. They hate to be bound to the ground, a feeling which is hard wired into each and every Seeker.

It's not too far to walk back to Octane's place and the pathways are empty, meaning that there isn't anyone to jostle them or accidentally run into their wings. There are bright lights shining down onto the roadways so it almost looks like the day cycle, the only difference being the colour of the lighting. During the day cycle it's white but during the night cycle the street lighting takes on a yellow colour, indicating which half of the orn it is.

Octane Racer and Starscream clump up the stairs into the apartment together, trying not to make too much noise so as not to disturb the other inhabitants. There most likely isn't that many other bots living here but it's best to be safe. No one wants to get chased up the stairs by an angry neighbour at any time of the day.

They make it to the apartment just fine and the blue and white femme lets them both in. Flicking the lights on the apartment is bathed in light, two couches in the centre of the living room area.

Starscream walks over and takes a seat, Octane not that far behind him. There isn't a holovid projector here, there's no excessive need for one considering no one lives there most of the time, plus the only time anyone is there is usually to go to the academy. It's no secret that SparkSoul and her siblings spend the whole time they're at an academy partying and hanging out with their new friends rather than doing their classwork. Their creators don't really care though, just so long as they are at the academy and putting in the pretence its fine.

"Just got in today huh?" Starscream asks as he looks around the room.

"Yeah, not long before I headed out to the pub. I don't think I'll do much with this place anyway, only going to be here four vorns."

"Four vorns is a while, you never know, you might like a holovid projector in here, especially if your classmates crash the place often."

"If I don't have the temptation there they won't come, no holovid projector means the place is boring and no one will come over. Pretty good situation if you ask me. Then again I've heard that most students don't spend all that much time at their own places, rather spending more time in their group hangout."

"Group hangout?"

"Yeah, every vorn level is meant to have one but usually there are multiple, not everyone gets along. At the end of the four years the lower year levels are meant to try and find the hang out so the goal is to make it as secret and hard to find as possible. No one has succeeded in having a hideout stay hidden throughout the search. It would be nice to be the first vorn level to manage it."

"Sounds like a difficult task, but I guess with a bit of planning it wouldn't be too difficult."

"A lot of planning for sure, hopefully we can do it. So, are you considered a good flyer back home?"

"Of course I am, I'm one of the best flyers in the city. I'm well known for my acrobatic skills, some say I may be leader of Vos one day, so long as I don't end up with goofy Trine mates."

"Woah, pretty good then. I've seen a couple of acrobatic shows but nothing overly fancy, not many flyers will perform outside of Vos. Only saw your troupe of aerial aces once when they came for a trip over to Praxus."

"I'll be joining them once I've finished here at the Academy, just got to get through four vorns of hard work."

"Won't be that bad, some of the teachers are supposedly very easy to rile up which should be fun. The headmaster mech is really into upholding rules and keeping the academy prestigious and stuff. I don't know, would be better without all that. The more we break the rules the better it will be, I think."

"Sounds good, you've got plans then?"

"Starting the moment we arrive tomorrow. The academy won't know what's hit them."

Starscream laughs, "Anything I can help with?"

"Would love some help stirring everyone up tomorrow early in the orn. Plan is to get someone to drop their outer plating and run around the place screaming."

"You think that will annoy the instructors?"

"For sure, there's really no doubt about it."

"Well, better count me in then."

"Glad to hear you're in Starscream. I'm looking forward to making new friends, possibly meeting up with some old ones and then riling all of the teachers.'

"Just call me Star, everyone will probably end up calling me that by the end of tomorrow anyways, it seems to be my usual nickname. A lot of the others back home love to call me screamer though, mainly because it annoys me."

"Do you have any siblings back home in Vos?"

"No, there's just me. I have lots of friends who live around the place but no siblings, fortunately I think."

"I've got a couple of siblings. They aren't very annoying but we're all at different ages and old enough now that we've all gone our separate ways. I'm the youngest anyway, so I'm meant to be the most annoying one out of the group."

"Hmm, it's alright I guess if you don't annoy each other too much. I would hate having other bots around me so often like that, really gets on my nerves you know. I like having friends around but siblings, I think there's a different relationship there."

"How are you going to cope with a Trine if you don't think you can cope with having bots around all of the time?"

"I don't know, I'll have to see when I get to that stage in my life. Not ready yet anyway, although there's some pressure from home."

"I guess I'm lucky, there's no pressure on me to get bonded, rather there seems to be a bit of pressure not to get bonded. Not sure if my older sister gets the same though. I barely ever see her anymore."

"Were you close to her?"

"Not very, we might have been somewhat close for a while there but it didn't take long before we went separate ways. She sort of lost interest in me once I wasn't the new exciting toy to play with. I'm much closer with my brothers."

"I still think I'm better off without all the sibling affection, easier to deal by myself anyway. Was it hard leaving home?"

"No, not at all. Most of my siblings aren't around when I'm there anyway and I barely see my creator. Easier this way for sure."

"At least you're not having issues with your creators being too clingy. Mine didn't want me to leave at all, had to pry my carrier off of my frame when it was time to fly here."

"Glad i missed that then, not that my creator would ever try that. He's not one to show much affection."

the two bots laps into silence as they sit in the dim room together. After a few clicks Starscream stretches and gracefully takes to his pedes.

"Thanks so much for asking me to come over; I look forward to seeing you at the academy tomorrow. I believe there will be heaps of people there, so hopefully i can find you."

"Thanks for coming; I'll meet you just inside the main gates to the left under one of the crystal trees, the largest one that's there. It's quite hard to miss. I'm arriving early so I'll definitely be on the grounds when you arrive."

"Alright well I'll see you then."

Octane racer holds the door open for Starscream as he exits the room, wings spread out beautifully behind him.

"Seeya tomorrow," Octane Racer replies as she watches her new friend walk down the hallway and go down the stairs.

Closing the door behind her the femme casts a look around the room and locks the door. She walks over to her bedroom and walks inside. Waiting a moment the blue and white femme rearranges her armour so that she's back to being SparkSoul. The femme then teleports to Kaon to train her latest gladiator.

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There you are. Thanks for reading, please review.


	2. Chapter 2: Groups and Alliances

Hey Everyone! I know it's been a long time since I last updated this story and I sincerely apologise for that. I got a little caught up with NaNoWriMo in November and before that my school year was just crazy. This chapter was certainly a headache to write but the next chapter is planned out in my head already so hopefully it will be quicker to write. Also, this year I'm going to factor fanfiction writing into my schedule along with lots of other things. For those of you who haven't checked out "Life of a Datsun" you may like to as it will be linking up with this story in the far future. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, alerted and favourited this story. Thank you to Hearts of Eternity for letting me use one of her character names.

Disclaimer: Canon characters are the property of Hasbro. The name "No-One" belongs to "Hearts of Eternity" from her story "Surface of the Sun". Any names that you can't recognise from the canon belong to me.

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Mechs and femmes flooded the academy hallways as the classes let out for energon break. The first three lessons of the orn had passed with the usual introductions. Nothing to do with the curriculum had actually happened in the classroom but the unit outline looked promising.

Of course some of the lecturers had turned out to be extremely boring, mainly the social studies teachers. Luckily social studies were quite a mute point considering how no one ever really travelled between the cities. Sure the teachers probably just did it to "help ease social tension within the student body" but everyone knew that the effort was just a heap of slag.

The multiple recreation rooms around the academy were slowly filling as the students trickled in to collect their energon. The murmur of voices grew into a great din as social groups were once again together. Raucous laughter could be heard in some places, breaking out across the main body of sound.

Octane Racer and Starscream met in between their two respective lecture rooms before making their way to the nearest Rec room. Soundwave had already commed them to tell them that the majority of the vorn level would be meeting at the nearest recreation room. Luckily all of the vorn level classes had been around the same vicinity because it would make finding out the outcome of the plan easier than it could have been.

A rush of noise assaulted Octane's audio receivers as she entered the room. Groups of mechs and femmes gathered around the tables, some drifting to the energon dispensers to collect their energon.

The femme dialed back her audio receivers before scanning the room to find Soundwave and the others from in the morning. To the back of the room Kanterra and his group gathered together, talking animatedly about something.

Slightly to the left of Kanterra's group Soundwave, Starchaser, Starcatcher and Cloudstriker were gathered. Gracefully Octane Racer strode over to the energon dispenser before turning and all but waltzing over to Soundwave and the group, Starscream only a pede step behind her.

"How were your first three lectures?" Octane Racer asked, not directing the question at anyone specifically.

"Boring, I gave up on concentrating only kliks into the class. The overall outcome of the three lessons were five good music mixes, a great dance playlist and a new communications code," Soundwave replied, his faceplates showing just how much he had disliked the classes. "However the next couple of lessons should prove much more interesting so long as they live up to their description."

"I mistakenly thought that this would be better than the schooling we got at the youngling centres but I do believe I made a massive misjudgement," groaned Starchaser as he sipped from his energon cube. "I didn't even have anything to keep me occupied for the three lessons."

"My lectures were much the same...Overly boring and extremely annoying," put in Starcatcher.

"At least you guys didn't have Kanterra sitting in the seat next to you!" exclaimed Cloudstriker. "I tried to spread the plan around the class but he started getting real hissy. I don't think he's going to co-operate with us at all on this."

"Well, we don't need everyone to come along with the plan I guess. We could always have two hideouts, one for our group that is top secret and one for the full year level," reasoned Octane Racer.

"Doesn't that kind of ruin the effect of the whole year level banding together?" questioned Soundwave.

"Yes, however I'm sure we would enjoy ourselves more with the two separate hideouts. We may as well start searching for our group hideout. Any prospective locations should be assessed by a small team of three or four from our group before we decide on one. Ideally our hideout will be easily managed, capable of being locked and hard to get to in order so that the rest of the year level is deterred from trying to get to it. In reality it will be pretty hard to find any hideout that fits all the criteria but that is what we should strive for. Any questions?" explained Octane.

"I think this is a pretty good plan, I'm not liking the hostility within the vorn level," Starchaser stated.

"The hostility can't be helped now, there was no way that I was about to allow Kanterra and his gang to pick on any of us. Just because he is a ground-runner doesn't mean he's any better than us. We'll be able to get through despite the fights that might erupt. We'll have each other to lean on when everything gets blown to the pit," The blue and white femme reassured them.

"Have any of you seen Jazz yet? I'm sure that he was meant to come to the academy: although, knowing him he'll be a bit late. He probably stayed out partying last night instead of getting some recharge, lucky thing. I would've gotten forced into stasis if I hadn't gone straight to sleep. Luckily creator is going to be away for the majority of the term," asked Octane Racer.

"He is meant to be in our Dark Arts class because I heard his name get called on the roll. He'll probably show up now or tomorrow before class," answered Soundwave.

"I thought I saw Jazz just a couple of moments ago, he seemed to be sweet talking one of the instructors into not reprimanding him for coming to classes late," Starscream added.

"The sad thing is that by the time we next see him all of the instructors will be putty in his servos. His charm never fails," Octane said just as Jazz walked through the entrance into the recreation room.

The black and white mech's visor flared with blue light as he looked around the room. A red and blue mech stood close to Jazz's side, seemingly quite nervous to be entering the room despite his fairly large frame.

Without acknowledging that he had spotted them, Jazz made a beeline straight for the group. The unknown mech stayed close by his side, sticking to him like adhesive.

"Hey Octane, Ah'd like ya ta meet my new friend Orion. It's his first vorn here too. What da ya say, can he be part of tha group?" Jazz asked as he tugged the mech forward. The black and white mech never wasted words, at least when he wasn't inebriated.

Octane Racer didn't bother with the customary scrutiny she usually used on new mechs. Instead she responded straight away. "We need all the group members we can get. Welcome to the group Orion. I'm not sure what kind of standing this will put you in, in the optics of your fellow ground runners. We ended up in a bit of a fight win them earlier in the orn."

"Slag, will yahr plan still work da ya think?" Jazz asked, sneaking a glance at the other occupants of the room.

"It should. Wait a click, how do you know about the plan?" Octane Racer asked, remembering that she hadn't told Jazz.

"Ah've got mah ways, ya should know tha' by now Racer," the black and white mech replied.

"I do but it never fails to astonish me just how well those methods of yours work," the femme said as she looked over to Starscream who had been unusually quiet. "What's keeping you so quiet Starscream?"

"Just talking to Skywarp and Thundercracker over the comm. link. They want to catch up after classes to go for a flight so I might be ditching you tonight Octane," Starscream replies, still kind of spaced out.

"Heh, whatever. I think I'm going hideout searching anyways."

"What's all this talk about a hideout and a plan?" the new mech asks timidly, not feeling quite at home within the group.

"Ah man, forgot ta let yah in on it all. Octane and Starscream here came up wit' this plan ta fin' our vorn level hide out and bring da vorn level together awhile back. It relied upon co-op and tha' ain' happenin' at da moment wit' da fight from earlia," Jazz explained to Optimus.

"Pretty much we all go out and try to find somewhere we think would be a good hideout. The general criteria which we decided upon was that it should be difficult to find, able to be locked and a bit of a challenge to get to," Octane Racer added before Starscream took over.

"Then we choose a small group to go out and assess the hideout. The best hide out we find within a period of two decaorns will be our hideout," concluded Starscream.

"Okay, so I'm meant to be keeping an eye out or go searching for a good hideout?" Orion asked.

"Yeah, if you want. Not forcing you into anything you don't want to do," Octane replied.

"I'll see what kind of time I have after finishing assignments and things."

At that moment the bell buzzed for the students to go back to classes. Hurried goodbyes were said and plans were made to meet up the next day. Most of them would be heading their separate ways after classes had ended.

Octane Racer walked to her next class, not really looking forward to it. She knew this teacher well and had no illusions about the class. It would certainly not be a pleasant subject to be taking. At least here in the academy she wouldn't be the only one the professor would be focusing on.

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Thanks for reading. Review please?


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